Herp derp, then allies should also get High Orcs. You know, with blue skin?

Originally Posted by reffan

And what are you proposing? Mag'har, Taunka or something like this? :P Nah. I don't think it will make sense. Also, there are little High Elves, far less than Blood Elves.

This is a thread about High Elves. I'm not sure what Horde could hypothetically get, but THAT DECISION, should NOT have any bearing on whether High Eleves are added.

“Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.” - Noam Chomsky

Guys this point is really moot, just give Arcane Torrent to high elves but with other flavor text and name. The important thing would be the balance, you can find a lore explanation for a gameplay effect :/

Anyways i disagree completely with anyone wanting more elves as playble races.

Wont happen and if it did would create such a mess that not even 2 raids like ulduar could erase.

NO to more elves.

NO and NO again.

Maybe I did for a bit =p

I don't especially care about High Elves in a sense that I have an elf boner, and want all my toons as High Elves... they have just been in the series since WC2, a key part of the game. It would make sense for them to be in the alliance lore wise. It wouldn't hurt a single thing.

“Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.” - Noam Chomsky

The reason High Elves will never be a playable race is because their population is too low. They are 1% of what they were before Arthas stomped through Quel'thalas. 90% of them died, and then most became Blood Elves.
That and there are practically no difference between High Elves and Blood Elves. High Elves are not good and light. They have the same magic addiction Blood Elves have. Seriously, if you want to play a High Elf, make a Blood Elf.

I think that a majority of WOW players don't care and just look forward to
whatever new innovation Blizzard gives us.
However, I am certain that the vocal minority does want high elves. Yet
these are the same people that complain the most in the forums anyway.
They QQ about CC while wanting their favorite class to be buffed all the
while listening to Bieber and worrying about their swag.

In the end, Blizzard already has the next race planned out if there is a new race.
IMO, they will go for updated vanilla and BC character models next expansion.

I think that a majority of WOW players don't care and just look forward to
whatever new innovation Blizzard gives us.
However, I am certain that the vocal minority does want high elves. Yet
these are the same people that complain the most in the forums anyway.
They QQ about CC while wanting their favorite class to be buffed all the
while listening to Bieber and worrying about their swag.

In the end, Blizzard already has the next race planned out if there is a new race.
IMO, they will go for updated vanilla and BC character models next expansion.

Well you leave my swag out of this.

“Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.” - Noam Chomsky

That and there are practically no difference between High Elves and Blood Elves. High Elves are not good and light. They have the same magic addiction Blood Elves have. Seriously, if you want to play a High Elf, make a Blood Elf.

Wrong. Lorewise there are clear physiological differences between High Elves and Blood Elves; High Elves being physically paler than their cousins as well as having sustained and continued to themselves with cleaner magical sources. Though one might argue that both Blood Elves and High Elves now sustain themselves with the purified Sunwell, arguing that Sin'dorei/Quel'dorei is tantamount to arguing that Mag'har and Orgrimmar/Fel-tainted Orcs are the same thing, just because the Fel Tainted ones are no longer fuelled by Demon Blood.

Among other things, Orgrimmar Orcs still maintain their racial ability to invoke Blood Rage from their demonic/Fel Orc days; something that Mag'har cannot.

"A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is 'merely relative,' is asking you not to believe him. So don't." - Roger Scruton

Originally Posted by Wells

I see no point in compelling integration. If you can't make your society sufficiently enticing to integrate willingly, then perhaps its not so superior.

Aren't two elf populations enough already? Three would be overdoing it, a lot.

I wouldn't be so sure if we're being technical. There are technically two human populations; the living and the Undead. If we're being true to the WoW theory of evolution, then one might even see there are three troll populations; Elves simply being Trolls who with magic had their evolution accelerated, in the same way that Jinyu evolved from Murlocs and Mogu from their brutish ancestors (whatever they were) in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Most races in WoW can be said to descend from another, primal race (Elves from Trolls, Humans/Dwarves/Gnomes from Titan creations afflicted with the Curse of Flesh), so I don't particularly buy into the presence of 3 Elven races overdoing it. I can hope that with the attention Blizzard has been giving High Elves over successive expansions, that they're building up to their addition.

"A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is 'merely relative,' is asking you not to believe him. So don't." - Roger Scruton

Originally Posted by Wells

I see no point in compelling integration. If you can't make your society sufficiently enticing to integrate willingly, then perhaps its not so superior.

Herp derp, then allies should also get High Orcs. You know, with blue skin?

This is a thread about High Elves. I'm not sure what Horde could hypothetically get, but THAT DECISION, should NOT have any bearing on whether High Eleves are added.

Seeing as how Blizz has to take game balance between factions into account, a relevant and comparable Horde equivalent has a huge bearing on the decision. Look at how people went ape over he whole worgen wildrunning/unequal mount discrepancy. The alliance having a larger number of available races would be a shitstorm, so any discussion about adding a race needs to address both factions.

Forest trolls would be ideal, as both factions would in effect receive a new subset of an already available race. Ogres would be nice, but alli fans may cry foul at the horde getting a "new" race while they would bet only a "recycled" race, even if it is one they have been begging for.

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Wrong. Lorewise there are clear physiological differences between High Elves and Blood Elves; High Elves being physically paler than their cousins as well as having sustained and continued to themselves with cleaner magical sources. Though one might argue that both Blood Elves and High Elves now sustain themselves with the purified Sunwell, arguing that Sin'dorei/Quel'dorei is tantamount to arguing that Mag'har and Orgrimmar/Fel-tainted Orcs are the same thing, just because the Fel Tainted ones are no longer fuelled by Demon Blood.

Among other things, Orgrimmar Orcs still maintain their racial ability to invoke Blood Rage from their demonic/Fel Orc days; something that Mag'har cannot.

No there isn't. Wowpedia;

The term "blood elf" itself is a cultural identity: a show of respect and honor for the fall of the high elves, the destruction of the Sunwell, the near-annihilation of their kingdom, and their rebirth from its ashes.[2] As a culture, the sin'dorei have retained the look and feel of their fallen high elven kingdom, though have developed a greater penchant for the colour of crimson: the colour of their namesake

Wowwiki;

The blood elves or sin'dorei in Thalassian ("children of the blood"), are a race composed of former high elves who renamed themselves in honor of their people who were killed during the siege of Quel'Thalas by the Scourge during the Third War.

Those now known as blood elves were once high elves

During the Third War, Prince Arthas led his army of the Scourge against them, ravaging Quel'Thalas and corrupting the Sunwell. Most of what was left of Quel'Thalas was burned down by the high elves in an effort to give the Scourge a psychological victory and leave the few high elves left who were making their last stand on Sunstrider Isle. Despite their efforts, most of the high elven population were eradicated during this conflict. In remembrance of their fallen brethren, most of them renamed themselves the blood elves, or sin'dorei, and swore to avenge their fallen race.

The only difference between High elves and Blood elves is political and/or cultural, NOT physiological. Every trait that describes Belfs (green eyes, etc) are present in High elf populations and vice versa. In-game, the eye colors are just a convenient way of tagging an NPC's faction visually.

"Stop being a giant trolling asshole." - Boubouille
"The Internet is built on complaints about asinine things" - prefect
"Facts became discussable when critical thinking stopped being the focus of education."- Chonogo
"Sometimes people confuse "We Don't Understand This Yet" with "Ooga Booga Space Magic" - Chazus

Of course not. This would be like having playable Lordaeron Humans. Almost indistinguishable in appearance because they're just the same race with a different group name. They'd have the same racials, the same class choices, and the same models in the character creator with the only difference being eye color. Period.

end of discussion. Ya, who gives a fuck they arent magic obsessed, its the same fuckin model. GC would never allow it.

Darkspear trolls are equally low in population. Besides there are lots of other things that don't fit, like Forsaken Holy Priests, Human/Draenei Shadow Priests etc.

Races low in population include tauren, draenei, gnomes, forsaken (they could not "reproduce" until the Val'kyr came and Worgen are still immune to their ability to raise the dead), Gilnean worgen and blood elves (however, Quel'thalas was very populous before the Scourge hit it, so even if a minority of blood elves remain they will not be as few as some people are prone to thinking they are.) Dwarves are anyone's guess but their numbers should be relatively good given that they've not suffered any huge wars. Orcs and humans, who knows. Most human realms have been decimated, and orcs are now resorting to conscribing kids even. Both races have been worn down by various villains. No idea about night elves. Can't comment on goblins; their propensity to breed means nothing if they die just as fast, and they do tend to focus on explosions vs safety.

The point is, the "low population" argument holds no water. Otherwise, the majority of playable races should simply be removed. Much like the Pandaren annihilate the "too similar" argument. Even if they were "too similar", they can always differentiate them. However, I agree with others that it's more likely that blood elves will simply be available to both factions and perhaps Alliance will have a blue eyed option, whereas Horde might have some other feature, e.g. fel tattoos, who knows.

---------- Post added 2013-01-10 at 08:49 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Auberdeen

end of discussion. Ya, who gives a fuck they arent magic obsessed, its the same fuckin model. GC would never allow it.

So how about Pandaren?

---------- Post added 2013-01-10 at 08:51 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Urti

No there isn't. Wowpedia;
Wowwiki;

The only difference between High elves and Blood elves is political and/or cultural, NOT physiological. Every trait that describes Belfs (green eyes, etc) are present in High elf populations and vice versa. In-game, the eye colors are just a convenient way of tagging an NPC's faction visually.

That is largely the opinion and interpretation of the author, though. WoWpedia is an aggregator of sources, it isn't a source of lore itself. Fel will by definition differentiate the two races. Perhaps initially there was not a huge difference between high elves and blood elves but that was a long time ago.

You are also incorrect on physiological features. I don't know what colour their irises were before they ingested fel etc. but the greenness of their eyes now is due to fel, a clear sign of its presence. Their palour/ruddiness, the availability of red/darker hair shades etc. are all due to fel. Blizzard even emphasised this in WOTLK. Check the Sunreaver vs SC NPCs. Who knows, maybe the darker haired quel'dorei altered their hair to differentiate themselves from the fel-tainted sin'dorei.

It just seems pointless to me. I get that some of you have really strong feelings about it and really want to play an alliance blood elf but..

The high elves split off from the blood elves (or visa versa if you prefer to think of it that way) like what, a decade ago? They are literally identical apart from blood elves having slightly darker skin and green eyes. The blood elves didn't become evil and the high elves are good or anything like that, the blood elves just followed Kael and used his solution to addiction rather than doing it their own way. If you want to play a high elf my advice would be to roll a blood elf and roleplay as a high elf, seen a few do that in my time on a roleplay realm.

That's just my view. I'd personally prefer to see an actual new race added (if they're going to add anything) rather than basically just giving alliance a horde race.

It just seems pointless to me. I get that some of you have really strong feelings about it and really want to play an alliance blood elf but..

No we want to play Alliance High Elves :P

Originally Posted by Rhaktor

The high elves split off from the blood elves (or visa versa if you prefer to think of it that way) like what, a decade ago? They are literally identical apart from blood elves having slightly darker skin and green eyes. The blood elves didn't become evil and the high elves are good or anything like that, the blood elves just followed Kael and used his solution to addiction rather than doing it their own way. If you want to play a high elf my advice would be to roll a blood elf and roleplay as a high elf, seen a few do that in my time on a roleplay realm.

People want to play them on Alliance side. We were always able to play them on Horde side, but you might've noticed that's not what we want. There are still High Elves in the Alliance.

Originally Posted by Rhaktor

That's just my view. I'd personally prefer to see an actual new race added (if they're going to add anything) rather than basically just giving alliance a horde race.

I think that's one reason they won't do it. Because players would feel like they're not really getting something new. Which is really a shame. I would also like a new race. I can't get enough new races. But to me High Elves should have always been playable on the Alliance side. They belong there as much as dwarves, humans and gnomes. They belong there as much as orcs, tauren, trolls and goblins belong on the Horde side.